The late comedian George Carlin was arrested at a Lenny Bruce concert for saying nine deadly words. Eventually these words became the “Seven Dirty Words You Can’t Say on Television”that he featured in his comic routines for years.
Somewhere in the Great Beyond, George Carlin is laughing his rear-end off because of the suspension of Mark Halperin by MSNBC. (I prefer not to use one of the nine to describe Carlin’s back side.)
Mark Halperin was engaged in a discussion on “Morning Joe”about President Obama’s manner at a press conference this week. Halperin clearly wanted to use the word, and actually discussed the 7-second delay networks use to bleep bad language. The television pundits egged him on, saying “the delay will catch it.”
So, Halperin called the President of the United States a dirty word which describes that special part of a man’s anatomy (I believe we are all familiar with the variations due to the recent Rep. Anthony Weiner Twitter scandal. As my husband said, the representative ruined the word “wiener” for everyone.)
I’m not defending Halperin’s actions in any way; I do find it curious that with all the real problems we have in this world, this is a news story.
First, why did the pundits egg him on? This is a morning news show, not Jon Stewart’s Daily Show.
Second, why did he feel the urge to call POTUS a name like that? Halperin looked like a six-year-old about to steal a cookie behind his mother’s back.
Third, why was it okay to use off-color language when he assumed he would be bleeped?
IMHO, these media folk were lazy. They prefer to sit in an air conditioned studio and babble on about whatever is top of mind. Thus, this becomes a story.
Let’s get back to reporting on the real effects of radiation in Japan, the treatment of women in Africa and Asia, the great number of soldiers coming back with PTSD, and the debt ceiling. Halperin, the pundits who encouraged him, and all who cover this story should know better.
